The Last
by Ebhenah
Summary: Keith reflects on a long life filled with lots of love and many, many, good-byes. **SAD**


**(A/N: So, the first week of January is ALWAYS difficult for me. It is the anniversary of my father's sudden death and I process that in different ways. This year it looks like I am just kind of diving into the grief. So... yeah, projecting all that sadness and heartache and missing loved ones onto Keith in this fic, but it ends kind of hopeful.)**

It's not something he ever expected, given his notoriety for being reckless and taking unnecessary risks, but standing over yet another memorial, it starts to sink in that, thanks in a large part to his Galra heritage, he's the last of them.

Losing Allura had been… brutal. Seeing Lance slowly turn in on himself and sink into the predictable domicility of his family's farm had been worse. It had taken him years, but he'd finally coaxed Lance away from the crops and the livestock and the fields of juniberry flowers and back out into the world, then into space, and then into falling in love again.

A different kind of domicility followed. Marriage. Kids. A lot of kids. A truly surprising number of kids. Their not-so-little vagabond family. Living on a ship. Raising and teaching their kids. Working with the Blades to help rebuild the worlds ravaged by Zarkon and Haggar and their war. Working with Coran and Romelle to continue to spread Allura's message and help integrate the New Altean citizens into the intergalactic culture that had gone millenia thinking they were extinct. Working with the Holts and with the Atlas to increase the reach of the Coalition.

After Allura, Matt had been the first loss. It had been sudden, an accident, a stark reminder that even in peaceful times, there was danger. It had hurt, as beloved as Matt was, even if he wasn't part of the core 'Voltron Family'. They'd rallied around Pidge, all of them gravitating back to Earth and finding reasons to stay close while she mourned and raged and learned how to pick up the pieces of her life and move on without her brother.

A few years after that, too few really, they'd lost Coran to an illness that came out of seemingly nowhere and forced the vibrant, energetic man into a sickbed that became a deathbed in a shockingly short time frame. Romelle hadn't even been able to make it back to New Altea in time to say goodbye. Lance had taken up watch at the head of the bed and the two of them spent those final days sharing memories of Allura and her parents.

He'd expected Lance to slip back into the quiet, sinking grief that had plagued him after Allura's death, but his husband was older now, with children that counted on him and a marriage to keep him anchored in the present. So, Lance had weathered the loss well. Romelle had struggled, and, surprisingly, so had Shiro. Once again, their little ragtag family rallied- flocking to support each other, spouses and children in tow. So much quieter without the big booming voice handing out praise and sharing exciting stories of past adventures, but they adjusted and others stepped up to be the storytellers of the group.

Coran's loss was followed by others, Lance's father, Colleen Holt, Iverson, Hunk's mother… more. Time was catching up with people who had survived the attack on Earth and helped to rebuild it. Each time, they came together, watching over one another and proving that family was more than blood.

It wasn't all bad, either. Honestly, the good far outweighed the bad. Shiro had married Curtis before Keith had even gotten Lance to leave the farm for a short trip. They'd adopted three orphaned siblings a few years later. Acxa and Romelle had become like sisters to him, and then Krolia had married Kolivan and they'd gotten a baby sister to spoil named Daylu that had the same eyes and the same smile that he saw in the mirror every day. His family kept growing, too. Acxa had married Veronica, Romelle had fallen in love with an Altean man that reminded Keith strongly of Hunk. Pidge… had never married, nor had she had children- but she was happy with her life, filled her home with projects and four dogs that were all nearly as big as she was, and never failed to be an enthusiastic 'auntie' to all the kids… with a bad habit of teaching them 'cool stuff' like how to make their own fireworks or how to hack into security systems. Hunk hadn't married- surprisingly, he'd somehow managed to balance relationships and families with Shay and Ryan Kinkade in a way that made it seem completely effortless.

By the time he and Lance had had children, the next generation was bustling and filling everyone's handhelds with new drawings and cute videos and dance recital and sporting event invitations and they'd been drowning in hand-me-downs and parental advice. Before they knew it, those dance recitals and sporting events were replaced by graduations, and first solo piloting trips and then wedding invitations.

They'd attended every last one. They'd cried at Shiro's 'father of the bride/groom' speeches. They'd whooped and hollered and cheered as his baby sister won race after race after race and proved herself to be an even better pilot than he could ever hope to be. They'd cooed over onesies at baby showers held for people they'd taken care of as infants. They'd walked their own daughters down the aisle, toasted their own sons' marriages. They'd stood and applauded in formal wear as Pidge collected accolade after accolade for her groundbreaking work- first beside her proud parents, then just Sam, and then just the family she'd forged in the depths of space.

Good lives. Rich lives. Lives full of love and friendship and family. Challenges and triumphs and heartbreak and joy.

He thought he'd been prepared for Shiro's death after a long illness. He'd been wrong. He'd shattered and bit by bit his mother, and step-father, and sisters and husband and children had put him back together. He spent long evenings quietly milling around Shiro's home with Curtis, slowly packing away clothing and books and mementos. He spent afternoons with their kids and grandkids sharing memories and pooling and redistributing photographs and letters and keepsakes.

When they lost Hunk, his big heart faltering and then giving out, several years later, and it was Lance's turn to fall to pieces, he'd supported him as Lance went through the same slow process of letting go. It had taken time, as he'd expected, but slowly Lance had made his peace with the loss of his oldest and closest friend. Life had settled back down, and little by little, just had it had every other time, the day to day routine eroded the sharp edges of the holes left by their absence until they stopped hurting so much.

Krolia and Kolivan's loss had been hard, because they'd gone silent on a mission and were officially declared missing for three long years before they had any definitive proof of what had happened. He'd wanted to tear the universe apart to find them, but his little sister had started to spiral into familiar and frightening recklessness and needed him. So, he had had to trust Acxa's promise that she would not rest until they found answers and watch as she and Veronica headed off in their search.

Grandkids and sharing a living space full-time with his sister for the first time ever kept them moving through day to day life while they waited for news. Then it kept them moving forward when they got the news that they'd been dreading- they'd already been living in a universe without Krolia or Kolivan for 35 months. It was jarring to feel such fresh grief for such an old loss.

Daylu had never really recovered and eventually that recklessness that had scared him enough to keep him home claimed her. That grief had been enough to send them back to Earth full-time. He couldn't bear to be off surface for a long time after that- it was too closely tied to too many lost loved ones, so they found themselves back at the farm surrounded by juniberry fields and descendants of Kaltenecker. Tending to crops and livestock and getting together with Pidge and Curtis and Ryan a couple of times a week for dinner or drinks.

They'd been spared more losses for a long stretch after his sister's death. He watched grey overtake the brown in Lance's hair, and laugh lines settle deep into that coppery skin despite increasingly intensive skin care regimes. He'd never lost that quick mind, always ready with a joke or wild idea. Lance had always greeted every morning with grumpy bargaining for 'five more minutes', but still somehow managed to be up and ready to face the day before six am with a bright smile and bursting with plans… until one morning he just… didn't wake, didn't stir in Keith's arms as the sun crested over the fields, the marks from Allura fading until they were gone from his peaceful face.

That loss brought their children home, grandkids in tow, for months- hovering worriedly over him, but eventually they understood that he was going to be alright. Then Pidge arrived at the farm with her dogs and a trunk and just… stayed. Acxa and Veronica spent more and more time with the family. Every so often, he'd catch Acxa looking at her wife and then at him, and he knew. Before anyone ever had to tell him, he knew Veronica was fading. He could see it in Acxa's eyes as she watched him, learning how to do the whole widowed thing, the same way she'd learned how to function away from the cutthroat world of Lotor and the Galra.

In the end, he thought it was kind of fitting that he'd been the one to put the Paladins to rest, one by one. He'd been the final pilot of Black, after all. So, he had. He'd said his goodbyes, and he'd made his speeches at the big public memorials held for the 'heroes of Voltron'. They'd had good lives. Long ones. He and Pidge had become the honorary grandparents and great-grandparents to step in for Shiro and Hunk and Lance… and then for Curtis and Ryan and sadly, for Romelle when a particularly bad storm raged over New Altea and claimed a heartbreaking number of lives.

The Voltron bond was strong enough to span generations.

Pidge had made it to her hundredth birthday out of sheer stubbornness, he was sure… and then spent seven weeks putting all her work into order, her brown eyes bright as she muttered at him "color-coded, Keith, always color-coded… because what are we? Animals?"

That had all been so long ago. Decades since he laid the Green Paladin to rest and he and Acxa had returned to the stars and the Blade of Marmora. His ties to Earth would never be severed, but with each child and grandchild he mourned, they grew more elastic, more distant.

He'd kind of lost track of how old he was, and he couldn't really be bothered to do the math to figure it out. He looked to be about fifty by human standards, and until today it had been decades since the last funeral for anyone who had loved goofball-Shiro (as opposed to 'Shiro the Hero'), laughed at Pidge's impish pranks, tasted Hunk's cooking, heard one of Coran's crazy stories, watched the epic anime that was Matt's hair, been tackled by his space wolf, seen Allura's beautiful face turn into a very un-princess-like snarl during a board game, corrected one of Romelle's endless mispronunciations of 'quiznak', or been on the receiving end of Lance's trademarked finger guns.

Today, he said good-bye to Acxa, his last tie to those memories. He set the bundle of juniberry flowers from the McClain family farm on the freshly turned earth. Brushing some stray dirt off the marble and bronze that marked the resting place of Acxa and Veronica, he adjusted the new little holographic display that cycled through four images- Acxa in her general's armor, Acxa and Veronica on their wedding day, a portrait from Daylu's first birthday of their little hodgepodge family- Krolia, Kolivan, him, Romelle, Acxa, and Daylu, and a recent one, her hands cradling her rounded belly, face alight with happiness at the prospect of motherhood.

She'd been so excited to start a new chapter of her life. To have the family she and Veronica had never gotten around to starting because they were too happy having adventures together. He'd spent hours with her, going over all of the various genetic files, choosing the perfect donor. They'd converted an old store room into a nursery and he'd hounded her for clues to the name she'd decided on before she even completed the procedure that nestled the little spark that would eventually become the tiny, squirming Galra kit in his arms. He'd been holding her hand and cheering her on when she pushed her son into the world and she'd proudly whispered his name to him before everything went wrong and he was shoved out of the room.

"You get her back now, Roni," he whispered. "I made sure she has plenty of exciting new stories to tell you. You're missed, you are all missed… but she was always happiest with you."

He stood, adjusting his hold on the little boy in his arms. "Almost done, precious. I promise. Then Uncle Keith's going to bring you back inside where it's nice and warm."

He turned, and his heart lurched in his chest. The hologram of Lance never failed to make his breath catch, that larger than life grin and those blue eyes swamping him with a lifetime of memories. "Um… heyya sharpshooter," he started, emotion filling his voice. " So… I've had quite the week. We've got a brand new nephew. Acxa will tell you all about him, I'm sure. I can't believe I'm about to do the whole diapers and sleepless nights thing without you to tag me out. But, it's okay. I've got this. We got a long life ahead of us, me and this little guy, and we've got a legacy to uphold. Besides, I learned the whole raising kids thing from the best, right? First my Dad, then Shiro, then Mom, then YOU. We'll be fine… better than fine. We'll be great. I love you, Lance. Still. Always. Just… keep my side of the bed warm, it's going to be a while before I get there."

The kit mewled, kicking restlessly. He made a soft purring noise, tucking the tiny little boy up close to his heart. "I know, I know… it's cold… and you want to go home. I'm all done. Just wanted to say hi to your Uncle Lance. He'd have been completely nuts over you, you know that? Shhhh… okay, okay… let's just say goodbye to your mama for now."

He turned back to Acxa's grave, tears welling in his eyes again. "You rest… rest and make sure Veronica is taking care of my family until I get there… and I'll take care of yours. Deal? That's what siblings do, right? Alright, don't you worry one whit about your little boy. I love his name, by the way. I never got the chance to tell you that. McClain Darom Kogane. It's perfect. Just perfect."

It's not something he ever expected, to be starting over after all this time. After all, he's the last of them. The last of the so-called 'Defenders of the Universe'. But, a week after this little bundle of purple fuzz and attitude and huge violet eyes was placed into his arms, it was starting to sink in, that he isn't the last. He touched the glowing blue marks that had appeared on his cheeks the morning that they'd faded from Lance's and for the first time, he thought he understood Allura's gift.

He could NEVER be the last, because they were all more than just Paladins, Coalition, Blades, or Resistance. They were family… and families are made of tougher stuff than legends are.

He wasn't alone.

He had McClain; McClain had him… and he had a really great track record with McClains.

Turns out, two people are plenty for a family, and the universe itself was watching over them.

 **(A/N: I couldn't resist the idea that Acxa named her son after Veronica and Lance, that she created a middle name out of the name of her two 'adopted' sisters Daylu and Romelle, and that the baby ended up with Keith's surname because he ended up the guardian of the little guy. I like to think that Lance passed the Altean marks on to Keith because he trusted his husband to carry on Allura's legacy and that the whole point of them was to be a reminder that she's always watching over ALL of them, and trusts Lance to do the same.)**


End file.
